Love Letters and Thirst Tonics (Moonvale Matches Book 1)

41. Fiella

The next few days passed quickly, Redd’s presence making the long hours feel shorter.

After a long day of assembling shelves, painting, cleaning up dust, and finding small tasks to keep ourselves busy, I found myself standing in front of Redd’s cottage. I had walked over here with him under the guise of being curious about where he was staying, but really, I was just unwilling to part from him any sooner than I had to.

I was pretty sure that he felt the same way.

“By the way, I’ve been meaning to tell you. I’m thinking about planning some sort of grand re-opening for Fiella’s Finds. It’s common knowledge that things have been a nightmare in my neck of the woods, and I think folk will be too afraid to return until I scream in their faces that my shop is alive and well and I’m ready for customers!” I babbled.

“I think that’s a great idea. We can pick up some pastries from the bakery in the morning, put a sign up, and make fliers to hand out in town,” Redd answered. “But your customers will return anyway, Fiella. Folk love your shop and you know it.”

I flushed, the flattery bringing warmth into my cheeks. “Yeah, well, it feels like the right thing to do. To embrace the situation and make an event out of it.”

“It certainly couldn’t hurt. I’ll have some free time, if you need a helping hand.”

I lingered for as long as I could, talking about anything and everything that was on my mind. Surprisingly, nothing about this situation felt awkward. If there was silence between us, it was peaceful. Comfortable. The two of us simply existing side by side.

But I couldn’t quell the desire to get closer to him.

He looked incredible in the soft evening light, the dim glow of the moons and the stars glimmering off of his tanned skin and reflecting on his tousled hair. My fingers itched with the urge to tangle into that hair, to bury into the strands and hold on.

I ached for more, but he seemed content to just soak up the moment with me, his hands casually shoved into his pockets while mine practically vibrated with want.

Fine. If he won’t make a move, then I will. I pressed up onto my toes, wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled his lips down to mine. His reaction was instant. He grabbed my waist, yanking me even tighter to him, and kissed me back like he was drowning, and I was the air he needed to breathe.

His lips stroked against mine, his tongue smoothly entering my mouth to tease my tongue, my fangs. A shiver worked its way down my spine.

He seemed to absorb me into himself. I was melting and he was the only thing keeping me whole.

His hands tightened against my hips, his fingers flexing and digging into my flesh, almost hard enough to hurt, but not quite. I could feel his blood pounding in his veins, his heart thumping erratically, his skin growing flushed.

I wondered if he wanted to bite me as badly as I wanted to sink my fangs into him. I craved his blood with an intensity I couldn’t wrap my mind around.

Gods, this man was an incredible kisser. I could kiss him for hours and never get tired of it.

I threaded my fingers into his hair, my nails scratching over his scalp. He groaned and his hands slid to my ass, grinding me into him.

I smiled against his mouth. That sound, gods that sound. I planned to coax it out of him over and over.

He lifted me and set me onto the edge of the dining table, stepping between my knees and closing the space between our hips. I could feel his arousal through the barriers of our clothes, his hard cock rubbing against me. Heat pooled in my core.

More.

His hands resumed their exploration of my body, touching, caressing, worshiping. One danced its way down over my thigh, to my knee, the other slipping to the nape of my neck to hold me in a possessive grip. In this moment, he had complete control over my body, and he knew it.

A whine escaped my throat when his teeth grazed my lip, the tiniest drop of blood welling up only to be stolen by the tip of his tongue. My muscles went lax, my body turning to liquid in his grip.

I leaned one of my hands onto the table to support myself and it landed on a pile of papers, immediately scattering the stack. The distraction was enough to momentarily clear my swirling thoughts.

“Oh shit, sorry,” I broke the kiss and attempted to clean up the pile, the urge to organize briefly overtaking my thoughts. He’d never invite me back in if I trashed the place.

“Leave it,” Redd mumbled, pulling me back. His mouth moved over my jaw, and he tilted my head, kissing my ear. Before my eyes could slide shut in bliss, I caught sight of the papers I had disrupted.

“Fiella, I couldn’t care less about anything in the realm right now. All I can think about is you. Your mouth. Your skin. The way you smell. You consume me,” Redd murmured into my ear. “Gods woman, you are everything.”

I barely heard him, because my ears had started ringing.

I recognized that paper, that handwriting. Those letters.

They were mine.

I fought to pull in air, my lungs refusing to cooperate.

Redd noticed my reaction and pulled back to examine my face.

“I didn’t realize you were such a neat freak,” he joked, until he realized the extent of the shock in my expression.

He picked up one of the letters. “Fiella, what’s wrong? It’s just paper. It’s not breakable. We can sort everything into neat piles later if that would make you feel better.”

I snatched the letter from his hand. I couldn’t pull enough air into my lungs and all the blood had drained from my head. I was fighting the panic that threatened to overtake me. The room was starting to blur at the edges.

Impossible.

“Where did you get this?” I asked, slowly and deliberately.

“My mail? It was delivered. What do you mean, what’s the problem?” he asked, bewildered.

I held the letter out of his grasp when he tried to reach for it again. “Where. Did. You. Get. This? Did you steal it? Is this some sort of sick joke?”

“No, I got it... I got it from the mailbox… Wait…” I could see the moment it clicked in his head, because his jaw dropped and all of the blood drained from his face, his skin turning a sickly pale color. “No fucking way.”

“Where, Redd?” I asked, buzzing with a mix of emotions I couldn’t decipher. Anger, betrayal, confusion, hope, something else that burned like acid.

He looked at me like I was a ghost.

“It’s not possible.”

“You’re telling me!”

He stepped back from me like I had burned him. The space between us became a chasm, vast and uncrossable. I hastily hopped from the counter, straightening out my clothes and smoothing down my hair.

He began to pace back and forth, mumbling under his breath.

“It’s you. It’s been you. This whole gods damned time. Why didn’t you say anything? What the fuck, Fiella!”

“Me?! What do you mean, me?! Why didn’t you say anything?”

I didn’t understand why he seemed shocked when he was the one who had been keeping this secret for weeks now! There was no way he didn’t know. It was impossible.

He couldn’t even seem to look me in the eye. I was sure the guilt had to be eating him alive. To keep a secret so deep? So important? So all-encompassing? So life-changing? Diabolical.

On the other hand…. I hadn’t managed to figure it out. The signs were all there, waiting to be recognized, but I had looked right past them. Maybe he had done the same.

I felt exposed. Vulnerable.

My thoughts were churning like the tides.

No wonder I found myself being pulled in two directions–the same enigmatic, alluring man was on both ends.

“Well, I don’t know what in Hell”s Realm we’re supposed to do about this,” I muttered awkwardly, hastily composing myself and pulling my cloak on. I ran my hands over my hair, trying to tuck the mussed strands back in place. I gave up after a few seconds and opted to pull my hood over my head instead.

There was nothing I could do to disguise the flush I was sure was staining my cheeks and the blood that I could feel pumping in my swollen lips. My body still thrummed with electricity, my skin begging to be touched. I pressed a hand over my mouth, and his eyes followed the motion.

He stood there frozen; a man wrecked.

What the fuck.

“Fiella, wait, let’s just talk about this–”

I couldn’t deal with this right now. I couldn’t reconcile the idea of the penpal I had in my mind with the vampire standing in front of me.

I averted my gaze and slipped out of the door before Redd could say anything else, slamming it shut behind me and hauling ass away from the cottage.

The urge to flee was so strong I even forced myself to run. Something close to panic was grabbing onto my chest. It wasn’t a panic rooted in despair, more one grown from fear. From the unknown. From the potential for world-ending hurt this could cause me.

Kizzi’s jaw was going to drop through the floor when I told her about this cauldron fire I’d gotten myself into.